Pain
by Piper Mary Cherry Milano1
Summary: Phoebe gets hurt, physically and emotionally Yet again rated PG13 for language, and a few intense scenes


12/03/01  
  
Pain is inevitable... that, I knew. Suffering is optional...that's got to be the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard! I mean, Cole has been gone for 3 months now, and all I feel is suffering and pain! I swear to God I've never missed anyone this much, and if I have to live through it much longer, I might have to jump out the window. I don't think I can take much more of the newlywed mentality from Piper and Leo. They're always making googly eyes at each other, and it makes me want to puke!..... Okay, so maybe I'm just jealous, but it's like Piper said, I mean when DO we get to be selfish?  
  
"Phoebe!" Prue called from downstairs.  
"Coming! Slave driver!" Phoebe muttered under her breath. Prue had been making a dinner for the owner of 411, and Piper and Phoebe had been her "gofors" all day. Phoebe dragged herself down the stairs, but slipped on the fifth step from the bottom.  
"SHIT!" exclaimed Phoebe. She tried to jump the rest of the way down, but instead found that, (at precisely the wrong moment), her levitation power had returned. She flew, but couldn't control where she landed, and fell onto the miniature table beside the couch. She was immediately knocked out by the fall, and Piper heard it first, and ran into the living room where Phoebe had already rolled onto the carper.  
"Oh, God", Piper almost hurt herself trying to get over there so fast, "Leo!.......... Leo!................ Dammit Leo, where are you?" Leo wasn't responding, and Piper was close to hyperventilating. Prue was still in the kitchen, but came running when she heard Piper say 'Dammit' because she rarely cusses.   
"Everything okay you- Oh no", Prue walked in and somehow immediately knew what had happened, "Piper, help me get her up, and we'll take her to the hospital".   
They dragged Phoebe out the door, but then when they hit the stairs realized that if they didn't want to hurt Phoebe any more, they'd have to pick her up off the ground. They both put every ounce of strength into picking her up, and managed to get her in the Aztek. When they arrived at the hospital, Leo was waiting at the front desk for them.  
"Is she okay?" Leo asked.  
"No", Piper had started to say that she thought she'd be okay, but Prue interrupted. They waited around for a long time, which left them with their own horrible thoughts to ponder. Finally, the doctor came out talking to the nurse.  
"And we'll need a long-term bed", said the doctor with his back to them, trying to whisper to the nurse.  
"Does that mean she'll be here a long time?" asked Piper, looking a tad like a kid who just got into major trouble.  
"Well, we really don't know, it's just in case she does stay here that we're insuring this bed, because there've been a lot of injuries lately, and many of the beds are taken up", answered the doctor.  
"Oh", Piper's head had never drooped so low.  
"But you can leave, she won't be awake for a while", the doctor contrasted.   
"No way, if Phoebe's hurt, we're here until she's not!" exclaimed Prue. They sat silently in the cold waiting room until 3 a.m., when Piper finally spoke up.  
"Is anyone hungry?" The overall reply was yes, so they voted on who would go get the grub.  
"Alright, I'll go!" Prue said, after half-an-hour of arguing. She was about to pull into Wendy's to get burgers to go when she realized Phoebe was a vegetarian, and turned the car around. Then in another minute or so, she turned around again, becoming aware that Phoebe couldn't eat. Well, that realization was more than she could handle and she started crying. She stumbled out of her car, and then tripped again walking up the steps. Once she was at last in the fast-food restaurant, she went to get in line which, (unsurprisingly) was not large.  
"'Scuse me, miss... Miss, miss are you alright?" the cashier asked, taking notice of her red eyes. Prue took a minute to examine him; he had almond shaped eyes, which were magnified by the horn-rimmed glasses that he wore. His nose was obviously recently broken, from the shape of it, and his ears stuck out from under the hat that he wore, and yet, despite all that, he was pretty cute.  
"Yeah-yeah, I'm fine... I need two double-sized hamburgers, two large orders of French-fries, and uh...." Prue knew there was something else that they needed, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.  
"Drinks maim?" asked the kid.  
"Yeah, that's right, uh... one Dr. Pepper, one Coke, and one orange soda", Prue replied.  
"Um...I just want to make sure... You have three drinks, but two meals... Does the third person not want to eat, or did you mess up, cause I can re-take the order", Prue just noticed that the nametag on the kid said Ian.  
"Thanks, Ian, I wouldn't have noticed that if you hadn't have brought it up, could you add another meal on there for me?" Prue noticed a definite change of attitude in Ian when she said his name.  
"Yeah, no problem", Ian defiantly had a crush on her. She got her food, and was about to get into her car, when she decided to go back in for a moment.  
"Hey, Ian!" Prue called over the counter to where he was flipping burgers.  
"Yeah?" He had gotten over there as fast as he could.  
"How old are you?"  
"Uh 22?" He said.  
"Come on, really how old are you... And just so you don't lie again, your being older won't better your chances at going out with me." She added the end, though she knew it wasn't true... I mean, if he was like, 26, she'd probably go out with him, but if he was as young as she thought he was, she might go on a first date, but that's it.  
"Okay, I'm 17", at this, Prue almost couldn't breathe. He's a decade younger than me!!!  
"Wow... Ok... Breathe, Prue, breathe... Listen, you look and sound like a really nice guy, but you're just a little too young for me, I'm sorry... Really I am, because if I were going out with you, I could probably face my sister better..." Prue trailed off, murmuring.  
"Well... I can act- wait... How old are you?"  
"Twenty-eight", Prue winced at the way her age sounded so old.  
"Well... I can act twenty-eight..."  
"Really? I-" Prue saw the time on Ian's Casio sports watch,  
"Oh Shit!" she exclaimed. She ran, but as she was running, one of her stiletto hells fell off. Damn, why is it that whenever I have to run, I'm wearing stilettos? She asked herself. Coincidentally, Ian was the next person to walk where she had walked (seeing as it was the middle of the night), and he tripped over her shoe.  
"I wonder what hospital she's at", Ian thought out loud. He had a friend at a local hospital that was a doctor, maybe I could call him, he thought. He went back inside, and walked over to the phone. (415)- 206-8111, he dialed from memory.  
"Hello, San Francisco Department of Public Health, Emergency wing", said a pleasant voice on the other end.  
"Hello, may I speak to Dr. Wright please?" Ian asked the nice voice.  
"Hold one moment please" the woman left Ian with some Chopin piece that he couldn't quite recognize.  
"Hello, Dr. Wright here, may I help you?" said the familiar voice.  
"Hey, Steve, what's up?"  
"Oh, hey Ian, not much, how 'bout you?" said the doctor.  
"I need to ask you a question", said Ian.  
"Ask away" replied Steve Wright.  
"Do you have any patients at the moment with two sisters in the waiting room?" Ian asked.  
"As a matter of fact, I do, her name is Phoebe Halliwell, and her sisters are..." he pauses, and Ian can tell he's looking at his clipboard, "Piper and Prue"  
"Thanks, I'll be right over", said Ian. Steve was still wondering what was going on, but he didn't have time to ask because Ian had already hung up. Ian knew he might get in trouble for leaving work before his shift was over, but this was something he obviously had to do. He got into his father's '89 Camero, and drove to the hospital. His hopes of seeing that girl again were getting higher and higher as he neared the turn-in for the hospital. He got his usual parking spot (he visited Steve a lot, seeing as Steve was his mentor), and went through the sliding doors that always scared him for some reason.   
"Hey Betty, how's it hangin'?" Ian asked the nightshift secretary.  
"Someone's in a good mood! Do you need to see Dr. Wright?" she asked Ian.  
"Yeah", so Betty got on the phone and called Dr. Wright.  
"Go right in, dear", Betty told him. Ian walked down the hallway, past the surgery room, on down to the chemo patient's hall to stop and say hi to his friend, Cho, that had Leukemia.  
"Hey, Cho, 'sup?"   
"Not much Ian, how 'bout you?"  
"Well, I brought you something", Ian pulled from behind his back a stuffed hippopotamus for the 10-year-old patient.  
"Wow, cool!!!" he exclaimed.  
"Hey bud, I gotta go, and boy you need to get some sleep... it's 4:30 in the morning!" They said their good-byes and Ian went down the hall to Dr. Wright's wing.   
"'Scuse me, can I help you?" Ian turned around to see Prue there with another girl who had red eyes, and kept sniffling, "Oh! Hey, what are you doing here?" she asked.  
"I came to see you, Dr. Wright's a good friend of mine, and he told me you were here..." he glanced at both of them, then said, "So are you Piper or Prue?"  
"I'm Prue", answered the girl that he'd met, "And this is Piper." Piper gave Ian a meek wave from behind the blanket she had wrapped around her.  
"Hi", Ian said to Piper, and then continued to Prue, "Listen, Dr. Wright is a really great doctor, I'm sure your sister will be fine... He's by far the best I've seen in San Francisco. I just dropped by to tell you that, so I guess I'll leave now", he slouched a little, and turned around.  
"Wait!" Ian immediately turned around, as if he expected for Prue to stop him, "Could you stay... For a while?" She half expected him to say no, because he had to go back to work.  
"Of course!" Ian looked like he was getting a second Christmas this year. He slipped his arm into sync with hers, and escorted her to the waiting room where they had been. When they walked in, Leo had his head in his arms.  
"Who's he?" Ian whispered to Prue.  
"Leo, Piper's husband", Prue whispered back. Piper walked over to Leo, and he signaled her to sit in his lap.  
"Who's he?" Leo asked Piper.  
"He's Prue's new son", Piper said sarcastically.  
"Leo, this is Ian, he's helping with the Phoebe situation. Ian, this is Leo, Piper's husband, and he's also helping with the Phoebe situation. Now, who wants something to eat?" Prue said more cheerfully than she felt. She handed out the bags and everyone grabbed what they wanted.  
"Is everything going okay?" Ian asked Prue.  
"We don't really know, Phoebe's still not awake," said Prue. Ian scrunched up his face like he was thinking.  
"I have a strange question... Does Phoebe have a boyfriend?" he asked.  
"Yes. No. Well, she did, but she doesn't anymore... Why?" She asked back.  
"I was just wondering. What is, or was his name?"  
"Turner... Cole Turner," said Prue in a really bad James Bond impression.  
"Okay, just asking," Ian said. After that, he said he had to go to the restroom, and left them alone in the waiting room. Once Piper was sure he was gone, she started in on Prue,  
"Good God, Prue how old is that kid, 12?!?!" she exclaimed. Prue turned around, because she thought that Piper was joking. When she was facing her, Prue realized that Piper was definitely not joking.  
"No, he's... twenty eight, same age as me!" Prue said, trying to throw Piper off.  
"Oh, okay *sigh*," Piper was obviously too worn out to argue, and Prue didn't have any objections to that.  
"Here, I stopped at the gift shop, and got you two pillows," said Prue, tossing airline pillows in their direction.  
"Thanks," they both said.  
"You're wel-," but that was as far as Prue got, because both Piper and Leo had fallen asleep on each other.  
  
12/07/01  
  
Piper and Prue were both ecstatic when I woke up this morning, but what they didn't know was that I have been constantly waking up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep because of all the pain in my head. Not just physical pain (which, believe me, hurts a lot), but also emotional pain. I would have thought that Cole might've come if he knew I was hurt. But the fact that he didn't proves that he doesn't care about me anymore. I gotta go; the nurse has come to feed me my mush.  
"How you feelin', sweetie?" questioned Piper.  
"Like a million bucks, how 'bout you?" said Phoebe, answering a question with a rhetorical question.  
"Where do you hurt?" asked Piper, ignoring Phoebe's sadistic response.  
"Where don't I hurt," said Phoebe.  
"I guess that's an indication that we should probably leave now, huh?" said Prue.  
"No, no," the last thing Phoebe wanted was to be left to drown in her own misery, "Please, you... you don't have to leave *she tries to sit up but fails in pain*, Ahh, just gr-grab a ch-chair." Prue could tell Phoebe was in a lot of pain, and wished desperately that there was something she could do, but... no such luck. Ian came in breathless, and said,  
"Phoebe, I got you something... It should be here in a few hours," he said, then glanced around the room at everyone, "What?"  
"Did you order it or something?" asked Prue.  
"Sort of," came the reply along with a goofy smile. They all hung out, and then there was a knock outside the door.  
"Ian?" a nurse was standing outside the door, holding someone's hand. Although the person was out of sight, it had a very masculine hand, and it looked to be an older person...  
  
  
  
  
PLEASE, please, please, please, please review... I don't care if you liked or not, but PLEASE tell me what you thought, Dammit!!!  
  
Signed Piper Mary Cherry Milano  



End file.
